Florence, a Delicate Case

Edmund White's THE FLANEUR, A STROLL THROUGH THE PARADOXES OF PARIS is not your ordinary guide book for Americans visiting Paris. And so, another Bloomsbury edition, David Leavitt's FLORENCE, A DELICATE CASE is not your "run-of-the-mill-go-visit-this-museum-and-then-have-pasta-in-this-trattoria" travel book. (It is actually the third volume in Bloomsbury's "Writer and The City" series.) Both White's and Leavitt's books are extremely personal, sincere takes on one of the authors' favorite cities. Naturally, since Leavitt has chosen to live in Italy and to study Florence, he knows the city very, very well. Interestingly, he knows the literary and social history of the city. Even more interesting to me is his knowledge of how and why Florence has appealed to any number of artists from Tschaikovsky to E.M. Forster and fellow "travel" essayist, Mary McCarthy. This is a beautifully written and beautifully produced book. The jacket design and photograph are particularly handsome. A good deal of this very small volume is spent on homosexual tradition and history in Florence, naturally enough since homosexuality informs all of Leavitt's writings, fiction and non-fiction, either in the forefront or on the back burner.And almost best of all, at the book's close, Leavitt treats the reader to an index bulging with titles and short descriptions of guide books, novels, memoirs, poems, etc. all of which have Florence as their spring-board. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED both for the plane-hopping traveller and the one stuck in an armchair.

This lovely and evocative book had me longing to return to Florence, armed with a new and intimate knowledge of the place gleaned from these pages. It is so much more than a travelogue, yet it provides the kind of abundant detail that makes it essential to bring it along to re-read while sitting on the banks of the Arno. Historical perspective is beautifully woven in with the reality of Florence today, resulting in a rich and multilayered, though balanced, and not always flattering view of the city of the lily. Warning: You'll read it and call your travel agent!

I've just completed Florence: A Delicate Case and was engrossed from start to finish. Mr. Leavitt, with his beautiful literary style, has captured the heart and soul of Florence in this wonderful book which will be enjoyed by those who have visited Italy and those who have not. This book is rich and lush historically and I wish it had been written before I visited Florence several years ago-it would have enhanced by stay there. Anyone traveling to Italy should pack this book first! Likewise if you're going to the beach or the mountains. This is a fabulous read!

I took this book with me to Florence and it turned out to be the most useful thing I packed. After spending several days going to see all the paintings and churches my Blue Guide recommended, it was a pleasure to see Florence through this author's eyes. I did not know that the David of Michelangelo in the Piazza della Signoria was a copy, for example, and that the original that used to stand in the same place was moved on a makeshift railroad to its present home in the 1800s. Walking the course of David's journey made seeing the original more meaningful to me. But this whole book is filled with amazing pieces of history that are a perfect antidote to the routine traveler's experience of Florence. Most highly recommended.

Florence, A Delicate Case is the most interesting book about the City of the Lily since Mary McCarthy's The Stones of Florence. Leavitt has written about aspects of Florence's history that even history itself has tended to overlook, and so he illuminates this city for anyone who has ever been there, or plans to go there, or even just hopes to go there. Although this is far from being a "guide book," it so uniquely maps out a lost Florence, and records the names of so many of its ghosts, that it should be in every suitcase bound for Italy. In sum: a wonderful book from a wonderful writer.